CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Summary: John and Mustapha are left alone in the room and continue to talk. John asks what else Mustapha has sacrificed for happiness and the Controller exclaims, Religion. Mustapha walks to his safe and pulls out the Bible as well as many other religion-based pieces or literature. He reads some aloud to John. When he finishes, he talks about the independence that is ingrained in every young and prosperous person is not enough to get them through 'til the end, so by staying in the young and prosperous phase of life 'til the end, enjoying the infantile bliss is all the people can do which caused them to tone out religion or religious thoughts. John then criticizes the nature of humans to automatically think of God by instinct, whilst they're alone and thinking of death. Mustapha retorts stating that everyone is conditioned to not believe in God, and they are never in a state of solitude due to the said conditioning that makes their lives devoid of a lack of human contact.
John, still puzzled, inquires Mustapha to recall a bit from King Lear, where it seems that there is an evident God running and managing the lives of the characters and holding presence unlike New World society. Mustapha and John continue to go back and forth about self-denial, which has turned to self-indulgence and consumerism; chastity which has turned to the expulsion of passion which consequently leads to the instability; nobility and heroism, which is now thorough conditioning that prevents any feelings of having to protect someone or something out of passion, when temptations are to be resisted, all things that will eventually end leading to the end of civilization.
By this point, John seems a little irate. When he tells Mustapha of the man who endured the stinging flies and mosquitoes in the garden which have been eliminated from the society. John scorns the society for taking the easy way out of life, rather then learning to face the challenges, oppose the problem, they simply get rid of it! Mustapha insists that the enduring of these things is unnecessary due to the scientific advances and such things as the Violent Passion Surrogate which acts somewhat as a replacement for violent, fearful 'emotions' in the person without any of the inconveniences. John likes the inconveniences, the society however doesn't not; would much rather a life of leisure and infantile comfort. John and Mustapha then end it with John accepting his claim to the right to be unhappy.
Vocabulary:
Superfluous - (adj.) - unnecessary or needless.
Literary Elements:
Allusions:
Life and Death of King John ---> "I Pandulph, of Fair Milan, cardinal."
Mentions of The Bible, Imitation of Christ, and Othello.
King Lear: "The gods are just and of our pleasant vices make instruments to plague us; the dark and vicious place where thee he got cost him his eyes." "Thou hast spoken right; 'tis true. The wheel has come full circle; I am here."
(Pleasant vices in this society being unending happiness, soma, consumerism, all things that make the society so disgraceful to John, he feels that gods are or should be punishing man for these acts.)
Othello: "If after every tempest came such calms, may the winds blow till the have wakened death."
(Reinforcing John's argument on necessary suffering; enduring makes such calms much more rewarding by riding through them.)
Why Chapter is Important: Just John and Mustapha in this chapter. They talk about the role of religion in this society. How God hasn't changed throughout the years, but it is man who changed. Christianity causes unhappiness with thoughts of afterlife, death, and sinful forgiveness. Society must not have these plaguing thoughts running through their citizens, so religion has been forgotten and thrown into the vault. John argues that it seems natural for man to feel some sort of instinct or presence of God, which Mustapha disagrees with. Although Ford is the apparent God replacement in the society, the people have no unhappiness when worshipping him; for example in the Solidarity Services.
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